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Speaker 1: Hey, Jorge, what image do you have in your mind

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Speaker 1: when you think about an atom? I guess I probably

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Speaker 1: think of you know, that image of the little balls

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Speaker 1: going to run and who orbits around a little cluster

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Speaker 1: of other little balls. It's amazing how compelling that picture is,

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Speaker 1: even though it's totally wrong. What do you mean the

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Speaker 1: universe doesn't agree with me? It's not that cooperative, and

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Speaker 1: that image is mostly about the electrons. What do you

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Speaker 1: think about when you think about the nucleus of the atom?

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Speaker 1: I guess I always just picture like little proton and

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Speaker 1: neutron little balls just clustered together, kind of like you

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Speaker 1: take a bunch of marbles and then stick it together. Well,

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Speaker 1: as you might have guessed, I'm gonna tell you that's

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Speaker 1: also wrong. Hi am or handmade cartoonists and the creator

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Speaker 1: of PhD comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist,

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Speaker 1: and I'm doing my best to make the universe cooperate.

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Speaker 1: It's generally uncooperative. It doesn't just tell you it's secrets,

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Speaker 1: you know, just just lay out for you the facts

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Speaker 1: about nature. It makes you go on a hunt, it

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Speaker 1: makes you ask the hard questions. But doesn't that make

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Speaker 1: the answer is more worth it, you know, when you

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Speaker 1: have to fight for it. I don't know. I'm the

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Speaker 1: kind of person who reads the last page of a

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Speaker 1: mystery novel first because I just want to know who

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Speaker 1: did it? And then why do you read the rest

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Speaker 1: of the book? I don't know. He's well, there you go.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the universe wants you to read all of it

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Speaker 1: before you find out the answers. That's right. The universe

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Speaker 1: has an agent and it wants me to read every

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Speaker 1: single arc of the novel. Yeah. I mean, it's been

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Speaker 1: fourteen billion years making it. You're just gonna jump to

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Speaker 1: the end. Quite a build up. Quite a build up.

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Speaker 1: But welcome to a podcast. Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe,

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio, our podcast in which

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Speaker 1: we try to skip you to the end and bring

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Speaker 1: you the answers to the biggest questions about the nature

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Speaker 1: of the universe, how things are built, what they're made

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Speaker 1: out of, how they work on the tiniest little level,

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Speaker 1: and how that comes together to make our incredible, inexplicable,

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Speaker 1: bonkers universe. That's right, because it is a pretty complicated

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Speaker 1: and mysterious universe. There's a lot of nuances and details

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Speaker 1: and a lot of hidden things that we still haven't discovered.

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Speaker 1: That's right. The things that we see around us in

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Speaker 1: the universe are not like the fundamental elements of the universe.

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Speaker 1: They are not the things that make up nature at

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Speaker 1: its deepest level. We have to take them apart and

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Speaker 1: understand what that's made out of, and then what that's

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Speaker 1: made out of, and then what that's made of, and

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Speaker 1: you can just keep going deeper and deeper. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: seems like the human species we've been sort of breaking

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Speaker 1: matter down little by little over the centuries, right. I mean,

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Speaker 1: before we thought that things were made out of like water, air, earth,

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Speaker 1: and then we found out about particles, and then atoms,

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Speaker 1: and then and sub atomic particles and sub subatomic particles.

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Speaker 1: It seems like we're breaking things down more and more.

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Speaker 1: That's right. We are digging deeper into the nature reality.

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Speaker 1: And that's fascinating because we wanted to know, like what

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Speaker 1: is the universe at the most basic level, if there

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Speaker 1: is even a basic level. But there's also another direction

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Speaker 1: that's really interesting for thinking about this problem, which is

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Speaker 1: going the other way. Starting from the smallest bits, what

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Speaker 1: can you make like if the universe is made out

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Speaker 1: of legos? What kind of stuff can you build? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because it's pretty mind blowing, I guess when you realize

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Speaker 1: that all of the crazy variety of things that is around.

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Speaker 1: This taught me out of the same little tiny bits, right,

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Speaker 1: quarks and electrons, you know, like airr and dirt and

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Speaker 1: you know metal, they're all made out of the same things.

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Speaker 1: They just sort of behave totally different depending on how

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Speaker 1: many and how they're arranged, these little tiny bits. That's right,

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Speaker 1: it's really just the arrangement. In fact, the number is

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Speaker 1: about the same. You have about one proton to one

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Speaker 1: electron to one neutron in everything, even if it's lava

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Speaker 1: or hamsters or ice cream. So there's something really deep

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Speaker 1: and fascinating about the arrangements of particles. How you put

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Speaker 1: them together determines what they are, and as you're saying,

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Speaker 1: not just by a little bit. Like it determines whether

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Speaker 1: it's metallic, or whether it's insulating, or whether it's shiny,

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Speaker 1: or whether it's dull, or whether it melts at room

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Speaker 1: temperature or not. All these properties determined just by how

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Speaker 1: those bits are put together. Yeah, whether it's tasty or

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Speaker 1: whether it will kill you, or whether it'll be tasty

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Speaker 1: and kill you at the same time. That's the different

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Speaker 1: element there. You don't think it's possible for something to

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Speaker 1: be tasty and not kill you. I think it's totally possible,

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Speaker 1: but it hasn't quite taken off. But yeah, the difference

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Speaker 1: is very small, right, I mean, like if you have

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Speaker 1: twelve protons and electrons and it behaves like one thing,

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Speaker 1: but if you have sixteen of them, it pays like

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Speaker 1: something totally different. Yeah, it's totally different. And for a

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Speaker 1: long time, we thought those differences were fundamental, that they

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Speaker 1: were elemental, you know, that Harbin really was something totally

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Speaker 1: different from Neon. But now that we know that you

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Speaker 1: can take them apart and that they're made out of

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Speaker 1: the same bits, we wonder things like, what else can

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Speaker 1: you make out of these little bits? What else can

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Speaker 1: our little universe lego kit put together? Yeah, Like if

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Speaker 1: you keep adding more and more of them, what happens?

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Speaker 1: Or if you arranged them in a different way, do

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Speaker 1: you get a totally different element with maybe magical and

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Speaker 1: interesting new properties. Yeah, it's like you could create something

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Speaker 1: totally new, something that has never existed in the universe before,

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Speaker 1: or at least something that no human has ever experienced.

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Speaker 1: Imagine creating a new substance with a completely different set

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Speaker 1: of properties. When it comes to like how it reflects light,

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Speaker 1: is it transparent, is it pink? Is it kind of translucent?

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Speaker 1: Does it glow? Maybe it blinks? Who knows? But the

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Speaker 1: universe is the limit. Yeah, And as you add more

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Speaker 1: and more of these little bits, the elements get heavier

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Speaker 1: and heavier, Right, they get literally like heavier and more

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Speaker 1: massive and sometimes more unstable. Yeah. So we have the

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Speaker 1: periodic table the elements that records the ones we found

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Speaker 1: and the few that we've built. But a question that's

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Speaker 1: existed since we've had that table is how far does

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Speaker 1: that table go? Yeah? Is it like a super long

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Speaker 1: table like they have in those big houses or is

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Speaker 1: it like a small kitchen table. We don't know, right,

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Speaker 1: it's a mystery of the universe. How many leaves can

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Speaker 1: we add? Can we invite as many people as we

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Speaker 1: want over for dinner? Do you need a kittie table?

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Speaker 1: They need to eat outside? And who has that many chairs? Anyways,

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Speaker 1: maybe the universe should just have a picnic or you know,

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Speaker 1: have a zoom dinner or something, as is popular in

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Speaker 1: these days. But anyway, that begs the question that we're

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Speaker 1: going to tackle here today. So today on the program,

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Speaker 1: we'll be asking the question what is the heaviest possible element?

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Speaker 1: Meaning what's the most massive element you can make out

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Speaker 1: of these little bits? Yeah, because not every combination sticks together.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you have a serving of neutrons and a serving

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Speaker 1: of protons and serving electrons and you try to stick

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Speaker 1: them together and they just blow apart. They're not stay.

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Speaker 1: But some configurations do hang out. Then they can last

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Speaker 1: for days or years or billions of years. And so

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Speaker 1: it's curious, like why can some of these things hang

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Speaker 1: out together? What makes them stable? How big an element

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Speaker 1: can you make and have it hang out and have

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Speaker 1: it be stable, have it like really be a thing

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Speaker 1: you can play with, right there? Sort of fickle things

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Speaker 1: protons and neutrons. That's kind of what it's about, right,

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Speaker 1: The elements need periodic table of the elements kind of

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Speaker 1: depend on the protons and the neutrons, right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: the electrons are sort of fluid and they don't matter

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Speaker 1: as much, but it's all about the protons and the neutrons.

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Speaker 1: It's all about the protons and neutrons because they feel

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Speaker 1: the strong force. They have strong feelings about what hangs

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Speaker 1: out and what breaks down. Is that why it was

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Speaker 1: called strong the Force because it's so dramatic. The Universe's

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Speaker 1: agent suggested that name. But you're right. It's the number

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Speaker 1: of protons that tells you sort of what element it is,

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Speaker 1: like are you carbon or are you neon? Is determined

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Speaker 1: by the number of protons and the new is and

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Speaker 1: then you can have various isotopes because you can add

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Speaker 1: neutrons or remove neutrons as you like without changing the

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Speaker 1: identity of the element. And then the electrons typically follow

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Speaker 1: the number of protons. So yeah, you're right. The number

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Speaker 1: of protons and the number of neutrons tell you what

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Speaker 1: it is and how heavy it is, and that determines

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Speaker 1: whether or not it hangs out or breaks apart. Right,

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Speaker 1: And you know, if you look at a periodic table,

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Speaker 1: it seems pretty filled out down there at the bottom,

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Speaker 1: Like as you go lower in the periodic table, that's

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Speaker 1: where you have the heavier and heavier elements, and it

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Speaker 1: seems pretty complete, like you can add one more proton

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Speaker 1: and neutron and you get another element, and you add

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Speaker 1: another one and then you get you know, there aren't

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Speaker 1: any big gaps there so far. Yeah, that's sort of amazing.

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Speaker 1: You know that there's a place for every element and

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Speaker 1: an element for every place. And that was a big

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Speaker 1: clue in the beginning. People started measuring the atomic numbers

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Speaker 1: of these elements and putting them together on the table

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Speaker 1: and realizing, oh, there are gaps. Is there something there?

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Speaker 1: And then they went and they specifically try to make

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Speaker 1: those things and figure out, oh, yeah, there is something

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Speaker 1: an element forty three technetium. It turns out it can

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Speaker 1: be made. And so organizing them in this way shows

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Speaker 1: us where to look for new elements, where to aim

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Speaker 1: for and constructing new kinds of stuff, right, And it

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Speaker 1: also has to do with this new concept that we're

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Speaker 1: also talking about here today, which is called the island

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Speaker 1: of stability. Now, Daniel, that sounds like, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: like a new age spa maybe in an island, tropical

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Speaker 1: island somewhere where you go and stabilize your karma or something,

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Speaker 1: But it's actually a pretty heavy physics topic. It is

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Speaker 1: a heavy physics topic has all to do with this

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Speaker 1: question of heavy elements and whether or not they can

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Speaker 1: hang out for a long time. So I don't know

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Speaker 1: how many people out there have heard of the Island

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Speaker 1: of stability, but we were wondering how popular this term

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Speaker 1: is out there in the general public. So as usual,

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Speaker 1: Daniel went out there into the wild to the Internet

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Speaker 1: to ask random people what is or where is the

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Speaker 1: island of stability. So thank you in advance to everybody

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Speaker 1: who participated and lend their voice to this question. If

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Speaker 1: you'd like to volunteer, please, they'll be shy. Send us

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Speaker 1: an email to questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com.

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Speaker 1: Here's some people had to say. Is it something like

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Speaker 1: the Uncanny Valley? So maybe it's if you look into

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Speaker 1: particles a lot into the readouts and there are little

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Speaker 1: islands of data that are like stable points that are

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Speaker 1: always there, so in a in the sea of static.

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Speaker 1: I have not heard of that before. There are elements

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Speaker 1: with high atomic number on the periodic table where the

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Speaker 1: protons and neutron ratio makes them have long lifetime, so

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Speaker 1: they have a large half life. I think those are

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Speaker 1: the atoms that I said to form the island of stability.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it has something to do with stable orbits within

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Speaker 1: the Solar system, so it could be kind of where

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Speaker 1: the gravity from the Sun makes the stability of the

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Speaker 1: Earth's orbit more stable. For Europe it's quite easy Switzerland, definitely.

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Speaker 1: And as for the rest of the universe, it makes

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Speaker 1: me think of a particular region, a small region that

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Speaker 1: would be very peaceful, very quiet, with no disorder in

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Speaker 1: the middle of a huge chaos. It's something that I

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Speaker 1: would ask my travel engent, I want to go there

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Speaker 1: that I don't know. Where is it? Yes, it sounds

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Speaker 1: like it could be something out in the universe um

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Speaker 1: where there's not much movement or spinning of anything. Possibly

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Speaker 1: the center of the universe, where nothing, nothing experienced from

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Speaker 1: I don't know. It kind of sounds like an equilibrium

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Speaker 1: of some sort, kind of on the razor's edge. Very unlikely.

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Speaker 1: Finally tuned, can't wait to find out. Is the island

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Speaker 1: of stability in Washington? D C has something to do

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Speaker 1: with quantum yields and how they can be arranged in

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Speaker 1: such a way that a stable particle is present as

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Speaker 1: opposed to just the energy in the field. I'm guessing

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Speaker 1: that it has to do with some sort of parameters

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Speaker 1: about how the fields are organized such that a particle

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Speaker 1: like an electron or something can can live. I seem

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Speaker 1: to remember there was discussion about the Higgs boson and

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Speaker 1: how it's at a higher energy because it kind of

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Speaker 1: got stranded on an island, as it were, and if

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Speaker 1: it ever got tipped off of that, whole bunch of

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Speaker 1: bad stuff could happen. All right, Not a lot of

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Speaker 1: people know where it is or what it is. No,

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Speaker 1: and nobody wants to sign up for your getaway weekend

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Speaker 1: there ran, Yeah, I know what's not to like. You

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Speaker 1: go somewhere and you, you know, stabilize a little bit,

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Speaker 1: you come back feeling center. It's right, Yeah, you're align

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Speaker 1: your ear chakras, you know. And a thousand dollars poor, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but a million dollars richer in your soul. What a deal?

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Speaker 1: What a deal? I like the person who equated it

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Speaker 1: to the Uncanny Valley. That's like a totally interesting connection,

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Speaker 1: there is it, though I'm not sure exactly how that's connected.

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Speaker 1: We're going to have video games with heavy elements in

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Speaker 1: them that don't look quite right. I think you're just

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Speaker 1: thinking of like geological features. Maybe we should have like

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Speaker 1: the Canyon of Complexity or the cliffs of insanity. There

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Speaker 1: you go. All right, So let's jump into this topic

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Speaker 1: and let's talk about how this island of stabilities related

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Speaker 1: to making the heaviest possible element in the universe basically, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, because the periodic table kind of goes on

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Speaker 1: and on, and at some point I noticed that it

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Speaker 1: doesn't go on forever. Well, that's the question. We don't

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Speaker 1: know if it doesn't go on forever because there's nothing

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Speaker 1: else to make, or we just haven't yet found those

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Speaker 1: elements were being able to fabricate them in the laboratory,

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Speaker 1: that's the question. Well, that's the mystery. That's Can we

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Speaker 1: just get to the end of the book Daniel here,

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Speaker 1: and I guess those of you listening could skip to

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Speaker 1: the end of the podcast to find out, But then

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Speaker 1: what's of the journey? Daniel, Yeah, exactly, Then you miss

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Speaker 1: all these great jokes, all these heavy jokes. Alright, So

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Speaker 1: the periodic table can keep going possibly, and it's been

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Speaker 1: changing a lot in the last few decades, right like

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Speaker 1: we keep adding heavier and new elements. That's right, we

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Speaker 1: keep fabricating heavier and heavier elements by combining smaller ones.

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Speaker 1: Because the question we have is how far up can

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Speaker 1: we go? Is there a limit to how far you

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Speaker 1: can go? And if you go far enough do you

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Speaker 1: get to some like new region where things are surprisingly stable.

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Speaker 1: I guess that's two different questions, like what can you

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Speaker 1: put together theoretically physically in terms of the physical loss

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Speaker 1: of the universe. And there's also the question of how

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Speaker 1: stable it is, like how long will it stay in

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Speaker 1: that configuration? Right? That's right? And you know it sort

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Speaker 1: of has to be at least a little bit stable

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Speaker 1: for you to call it an element. If you take,

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Speaker 1: for example, element and element winting, you smush them together

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Speaker 1: to make element one nineteen, if it doesn't like settle

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Speaker 1: into a state that you can really call element nineteen

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Speaker 1: at least for a few milliseconds before it explodes, can

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Speaker 1: you really say you've done it right? You haven't really

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Speaker 1: mixed the ingredients to make your brownies if they sort

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Speaker 1: of repel each other and never come together. That's another element, right,

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Speaker 1: brownium brown Um, it's the tastiest element. It's the reason

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Speaker 1: brownies are so good. It's quite heavy too, depending on

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Speaker 1: how much butter you you put into it. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a question of stability and is there sort

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Speaker 1: of a threshold and physics like it has to last

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Speaker 1: for X number of milliseconds or microseconds before you can say, okay,

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Speaker 1: that's an element. Yeah, that's a great question. When they

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Speaker 1: do these experiments, they only detect these atoms if they

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Speaker 1: see characteristic stuff that flies out of that atom. So

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Speaker 1: it's not like there's a minimum amount of time it

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Speaker 1: has to exist in order for them to like declare

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Speaker 1: it having been an element. But they need to see

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Speaker 1: its products, the things that it can only make, and

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Speaker 1: so for that to happen, there must be some sort

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Speaker 1: of minimum amount of time for an element to sort

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Speaker 1: of like relax and stabilize and come together from all

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Speaker 1: of its ingredients swooshing around. But that's going to be

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Speaker 1: a very very small time, much smaller than anything we

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Speaker 1: can measure. All right, Well, let's break it down, Daniel.

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Speaker 1: I guess the first topic we can talk about here

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Speaker 1: is this question of stability, like what makes an atom

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Speaker 1: stable and not stable? Yeah, it's fascinating, like why can't

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Speaker 1: you just put any number of protons and neutrons together

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Speaker 1: and get an atom and call it a day, And

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Speaker 1: why does some of them break apart and some of

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Speaker 1: them last forever? It's really a fascinating question, and it

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Speaker 1: turns out like usual it's complicated, you know, you might

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Speaker 1: turn it around and instead of asking like, why are

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Speaker 1: some of these things unstable, you might ask like, why

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Speaker 1: is any nucleus stable? Because the nucleus has in it

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Speaker 1: what protons and neutrons. And protons are positively charged, so

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Speaker 1: they repel each other, and the neutrons are just neutral.

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Speaker 1: So you might ask like, well, why doesn't the nucleus

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Speaker 1: break apart every single time? I have a strong hunch

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Speaker 1: about this. It's related to the strong force. It's related

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Speaker 1: to the strong force exactly. We know that protons and

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Speaker 1: neutrons are just a little bags of corks that are

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Speaker 1: held together by gluons, and so they are tied together

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Speaker 1: by the strong force, and we like to think of

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Speaker 1: them as not having an overall strong force charge, being

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Speaker 1: sort of neutral with respect to the strong force, because

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Speaker 1: the corks inside them add up all the colors inside balance,

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Speaker 1: and you get something which ostensibly is neutral from the

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Speaker 1: point of view with the strong force. And that's mostly true,

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Speaker 1: but the mostly is doing a lot of work there.

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Speaker 1: If you get really close to a proton, you could

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Speaker 1: be like closer to one of the corks than the

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Speaker 1: other ones, and so the corks don't exactly balance themselves out.

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Speaker 1: So when the protons and neutrons get really near each other,

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Speaker 1: then like the corks inside them can start talking to

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Speaker 1: each other. And so this little residual extra bit of

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Speaker 1: the strong force is actually the thing that holds the

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Speaker 1: nucleus together. That's enough to overcome the repulsion from the protons. Interesting.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's kind of like if you have a

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Speaker 1: positive charge in a negative charge and you stick them together,

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Speaker 1: they're not gonna really attract or repel anything around them

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Speaker 1: because together they're neutral right to everyone around them. But

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Speaker 1: if you get really really close to them, you might be,

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Speaker 1: you know, closer to the plus or to the miners,

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Speaker 1: in which case you would feel an attraction or repulsion. Yeah, precisely.

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Speaker 1: So you had two of those things that had a

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Speaker 1: plus and minus inside of them, and you brought them

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Speaker 1: close together and inverted the orientation so that the plus

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Speaker 1: of one was close to the minus of the other,

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Speaker 1: then they would feel an overall attraction. And so that's

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Speaker 1: a great example for how you can put something together

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Speaker 1: which has an overall neutral charge and still have it

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Speaker 1: attract itself. And that's the thing that holds these nuclear together.

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Speaker 1: That's the reason that they don't bust apart. That's why

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Speaker 1: helium and calcium and all the things that make up

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Speaker 1: your dinner tonight hang together. It's the strong force, right,

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Speaker 1: and so that's what's happening with the corks inside of

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Speaker 1: the protons and neutrons. Like the corks sort of attract

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Speaker 1: and repair all each other. But once you get three

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Speaker 1: of them that are stable, they're sort of neutral together, yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: And then you mix these things together and they can

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Speaker 1: hang out. But because it's the strong force, it's complicated.

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Speaker 1: Like the strong force is just a mess. When we

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Speaker 1: try to do calculations with a strong force is a

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Speaker 1: disaster because the strong force is so powerful that it's

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Speaker 1: very sensitive to small changes of distance. So we need

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Speaker 1: like massive supercomputers to figure out what's stable and how

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Speaker 1: these things work and the masses of particles. It's really

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Speaker 1: kind of a nightmare to do any calculations with. It's

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Speaker 1: a heavy endeavor. It's a heavy endeavor. But we've noticed

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Speaker 1: a few things, like we don't really understand how to

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Speaker 1: predict these things, but we've noticed some patterns. We've noticed

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Speaker 1: sort of like what is stable and what is not.

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Speaker 1: If you just sort of count the number of protons

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Speaker 1: and neutrons that are in the nuclei of stable atoms.

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Speaker 1: You notice some really interesting patterns. Yeah, you get sort

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Speaker 1: of like a magic sequence of numbers, right, They feel

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Speaker 1: almost sort of like supernatural. Yeah, exactly. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's get into this magic sequence of number and let's

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Speaker 1: talk about how to make a really stable heavy atom.

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Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. All right, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about the heaviest possible element you can make in

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Speaker 1: the universe. How many protons and neutrons can you stick

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Speaker 1: together and still be stable? And we're talking about the

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Speaker 1: stability of these things, and it has to do with

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Speaker 1: some sort of magic number, right, Daniel. Yeah, it turns

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Speaker 1: out that certain numbers of protons and neutrons are more

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Speaker 1: stable than other configurations. And it's really kind of analogous

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Speaker 1: to the way we think about electrons filling up their orbitals.

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Speaker 1: You know the picture you were describing earlier of a

390
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Speaker 1: nucleus with electrons around it, And we know that, like,

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Speaker 1: you can have two electrons in the lowest orbital and

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Speaker 1: then a certain number in the next and a certain

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Speaker 1: number in the next and they sort of fill up

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Speaker 1: these shells, and as they fill them up, they get

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Speaker 1: more interact they are less interactive, etcetera. It turns out

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Speaker 1: that the protons and the neutrons inside the nucleus also

397
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Speaker 1: have these kind of shells, and you can get like

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Speaker 1: two neutrons at the inner shell, and then six in

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Speaker 1: the next shell, and twelve in the next shell, and

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Speaker 1: eight in the shell after that. So we've noticed these

401
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Speaker 1: trends that if you have just the right number of

402
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Speaker 1: neutrons to like fill up a shell, then the atom

403
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Speaker 1: becomes much more stable. Interesting, you mean, the nucleus of

404
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Speaker 1: an atom has layers like an onion or the sun.

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Speaker 1: It's really kind of hard to visualize. It's not like

406
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Speaker 1: there are physical shells. These are sort of energy levels.

407
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Speaker 1: These are like how many neutrons you have filling up

408
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Speaker 1: energy levels. The best way to visualize it is still

409
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Speaker 1: like a ball of marbles, but they're all sort of

410
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Speaker 1: like moving around and swishing, and different ones have different

411
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Speaker 1: amounts of energy. You see. Is it kind of like

412
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Speaker 1: electron clouds, like they're in different configurations and their quantum

413
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Speaker 1: you know shape, Yeah, exactly. That's a good way to

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Speaker 1: think about it. You know, like they're filling up these

415
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Speaker 1: energy levels, and as you get to like a complete shell,

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Speaker 1: then they sort of fit together very nicely in a

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Speaker 1: way that supports each other. And so if you have,

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Speaker 1: for example, uh, six neutrons and the third shell, then

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Speaker 1: they fit together really nicely. And the next shell needs

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Speaker 1: twelve neutrons, the next one needs eight, and the next

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Speaker 1: one needs twenty two. And these aren't numbers that we understand.

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Speaker 1: It's not like we can sit down and figure out

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Speaker 1: why you need twenty two or why you need eight,

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Speaker 1: But it's just sort of an observation we've made. As

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Speaker 1: you put these things together, the nucleus becomes more stable

426
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Speaker 1: if you have these magic numbers of neutrons and protons. Interesting,

427
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Speaker 1: so you see this pattern in the periodic table, like

428
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Speaker 1: you know, the first two heavy elements are stable, then

429
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: the next most stable is the eighth one, and then

430
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,200
Speaker 1: the most stable is the one and things like that. Yeah,

431
00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:45,720
Speaker 1: it's a little bit more complicated because you count the

432
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 1: neutrons and the protons separately, Like if the protons have

433
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 1: their magic number, then it's stable. If the neutrons have

434
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 1: their magic number, it can be stable. And then you

435
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,560
Speaker 1: could have doubly magic elements things where both the neutrons

436
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 1: and the protons have their magic number, and those are

437
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: the most stable. But as these things sort of fit together,

438
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 1: you can get different amounts of stability per atom. Interesting,

439
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,920
Speaker 1: you have two variables here that you need to match

440
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 1: to get the most stable element. Yeah, exactly. And it's

441
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 1: all sort of related to the quantum nature of these particles,

442
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:17,920
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, because they're a wave

443
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,160
Speaker 1: and they have to fit within a certain energy level

444
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 1: or space, they sort of click in certain integers. Yeah,

445
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 1: these guys are all trapped inside this potential well in

446
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,160
Speaker 1: the nucleus, this strong force which wants to hold them together,

447
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: and it's mostly successful for a stable atom, you know,

448
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 1: but some atoms are more stable than others. What happens

449
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:38,679
Speaker 1: when an atom is breaking apart? You're right, it's a

450
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: quantum effect. It's like you have a particle stuck in

451
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:45,159
Speaker 1: a potential well, but that potential well doesn't have infinite sides,

452
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: and so occasionally it can slip out. So the way

453
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 1: that a nucleus breaks apart, the way that it decays,

454
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: is that a quantum tunnels from one state where it's

455
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:58,120
Speaker 1: trapped inside this well outside of it into a state

456
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: where you have two separate pieces, and so to do

457
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,639
Speaker 1: that you have to quantum tunnel, and the likelihood of

458
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: that happening depends sort of like on the height of

459
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,239
Speaker 1: the potential barrier. And also it's with I see all right,

460
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 1: so it's sort of quantized by these magic numbers. But

461
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: I guess the question we're trying to answer today is

462
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:16,479
Speaker 1: is there a limit like you can have? You know,

463
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: two is a stable number. Eight's a stable number eight two. Potentially,

464
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:25,439
Speaker 1: how far can you go, you know, how far can

465
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: you keep you know, putting these protons and neutrons together

466
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 1: and still get you know, the double magic stability numbers. Yeah,

467
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 1: it's really interesting. The heaviest stable thing that we have

468
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: ever found in the universe is lead. Lead is totally stable,

469
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 1: and it's element number eighty two. And you know, if

470
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 1: you make lead, we think it will just stick around forever. Really, Yeah,

471
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:47,199
Speaker 1: that's the heaviest stable thing there is. It's like it

472
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 1: hits the two magic numbers, like the protons are super

473
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 1: happy together and the neutrons are super happy together. Yeah,

474
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 1: exactly eighty two is one of the magic numbers. And

475
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: that's we think is what makes lead so stable. Now,

476
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 1: there is other stuff out there. For example, uranium, Right,

477
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: Uranium is the heaviest element that we find in nature,

478
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,199
Speaker 1: but of course we know that it's not stable. It

479
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: tends to decay down to lighter things. So there are

480
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,280
Speaker 1: processes out there in the universe, like the collisions of

481
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: neutron stars that can make these heavy elements, some of

482
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: which are very long lived. You know, they live for

483
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: thousands or millions or even billions of years. But lead

484
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,159
Speaker 1: is the heaviest stable thing that we've found. And so

485
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: you can ask really fun questions like is it possible

486
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: that there are heavier elements up there much further down,

487
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 1: deeper into the periodic table where you combine these magic

488
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 1: numbers to get like really big numbers that could like

489
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 1: click together in a stable way, like a super duper

490
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: heavy lead or something. Yeah, exactly, exactly an element that

491
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: makes lead feel lightweight. Yeah, And I guess is there

492
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,720
Speaker 1: anything like after lead, what's the next you know, heaviest

493
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 1: but also sort of stable element that we know about.

494
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 1: You know, there's really nothing above lead that's very stable.

495
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 1: You know, uranium is up there, plutonium is up there,

496
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 1: but nothing up there really has much stability at all.

497
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:04,479
Speaker 1: But we can look at the trends, and we can

498
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 1: get a sense for like as we go up, as

499
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: we crank up the number A hundred hundred, five hundred fifteen,

500
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,640
Speaker 1: are things getting more or less stable, and that can

501
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: help us sort of predict whether or not there's going

502
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:19,320
Speaker 1: to be stuff up there. But we can try to predict, right,

503
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: we can put these magic numbers together and we can say, well,

504
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: what if we could make this element like one twenty

505
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,679
Speaker 1: six that's called n b hexi um. This one would

506
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: be doubly magic because as a proton number six, which

507
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,679
Speaker 1: is magic, and then a hundred and eighty four neutrons,

508
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,199
Speaker 1: which is also magic. So it would be this huge

509
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: massive nucleus, super duper heavy element one. But you know,

510
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,120
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it yet or we have been able

511
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: to make it yet, so we just don't know if

512
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: it's stable or not. It's a hypothetical element, yes, exactly.

513
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:56,119
Speaker 1: Everything above A hundred and eighteen is hypothetical. D eighteen

514
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: is the heaviest thing we've ever fabricated. Everything above that

515
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: is just speculating. We don't know if it can't exist

516
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,360
Speaker 1: and what it would be like two is the heaviest

517
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,439
Speaker 1: we've seen in nature, like the naturally seems to occur.

518
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: That's stable. But you can imagine heavier elements, and you

519
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,119
Speaker 1: can give him names like you're allowed to do that.

520
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 1: You can name things that don't exist yet. They've named

521
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: a bunch of these elements that we haven't actually made yet.

522
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: But I think those names are placeholders, and when somebody

523
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 1: actually makes them, then they get sort of decide the name,

524
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: because up to one eighteen they have sort of more

525
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: interesting names than above that they have these sort of

526
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 1: placeholder names. Can I stick my claim in a number,

527
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,199
Speaker 1: like you know, it's five seventy three taken? Can I

528
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: call that chammium? Do it? There? You go? Chammi? Um five?

529
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 1: Are you stable? Are you feeling stable today? My brownie? First?

530
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: All right? So we can imagine and there might be

531
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: these sort of super heavy lead elements that are doubly

532
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: magic and super stable, but we don't know, right, Like

533
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: that's a big mystery. We don't know. It's a big mystery.

534
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: And we've been sort of bad historically at understanding where

535
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,479
Speaker 1: the periodic table might end. And this is because this

536
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: is hard, right, the strong force and nuclear physics is

537
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 1: tough stuff. But people have been making predictions for a

538
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: long time and getting it wrong. You know, for example,

539
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: when we discovered plutonium, which is just element ninety four,

540
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 1: people thought about naming it ultimium because they thought maybe

541
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: it was the last element anybody would ever make. And

542
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 1: now you know, we're more than ten elements beyond it.

543
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 1: I see, I guess maybe a question here is what's

544
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 1: the limitation? You know, both in nature and for us

545
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 1: as humans, like it seems like nature doesn't like making

546
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: things heavier than lead or uranium or plutonium. Is that

547
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: because that's just the you know, it takes too much

548
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: energy to make heavier things. It takes energy, but you

549
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: also have to have the ingredients, right, to make a

550
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: really heavy element, you have to have the ingredients which

551
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: will also be pretty heavy. And you know, these heavy

552
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: elements are rare. As you get further up in the

553
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: periodic table, you need things like drawn star collisions to

554
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: even fabricate enough platinum or uranium or plutonium. And so

555
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: to make something which is like twice as heavy as plutonium,

556
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 1: you need some situation where you're like smashing plutonium against

557
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: plutonium to make you know, I don't know what it's

558
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: called double plutonium plotium exactly. So these things just get

559
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: rarer and rarer, and so you just don't have them

560
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: being made at all. But one question is whether these

561
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 1: things actually already exist out there in the universe. Like

562
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: it's possible that und hexium exists and it's somewhere out there,

563
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: buried deep in the Earth or in the center of

564
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: a neutron star. Right, Because when these heavy neutron stars crash,

565
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: I mean, can anything happen, Like could it just become

566
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,560
Speaker 1: one giant element with a million protons in it? That's

567
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: an awesome question, and you know, sort of breaks apart

568
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: this whole concept of what an element is because if

569
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: we talk about this thing and it's not fundamental, right,

570
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: it's a special circumstances, something that appears in a spe

571
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: configuration under certain pressures and temperatures. And if you push

572
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 1: stuff together into a neutron star, I don't think you

573
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: can really call that an element because I think those

574
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: neutrons are in some crazy special state where they're really

575
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 1: crammed together. And we also don't know how to calculate

576
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 1: the details of how that works. As a whole other

577
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 1: field of study what's going on inside neutron stars. But

578
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 1: we talked about this one to like what's inside a

579
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: black hole, and we called it black hoolium because it's

580
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: some weird state of matter where these things are squished together.

581
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: So the boundaries between the neutrons and protons are probably

582
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: breaking down, right interesting, And what about for us as humans, Like,

583
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 1: what's the limiting factor? Why can't we just keep smashing

584
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: these heavier and heavier elements together to make super heavy elements. Well,

585
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing, and there's an exciting program at

586
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: Berkeley and then a lab in Russia that's doing exactly that.

587
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: And that's how we've made element up to one eighteen,

588
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: is that we found lighter elements and we smashed them

589
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 1: together to try to make heavy elements. But it's not easy, right,

590
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: It's not easy for a couple of reasons. One is

591
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: that you just don't have that much of the ingredients.

592
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: For example, you want to make one seventeen, then you've

593
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 1: got to smash berkeley um, which is into calcium which

594
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 1: is twenty and there's not that much berkeleum around, Like

595
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: it took them two years of dedicated running just to

596
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: make twelve milligrams of berkeleum, which is like the minimum

597
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: you need to make this target to shoot calcium ad.

598
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: So it's just not easy to get the ingredients. If

599
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: we had an unlimited source of all the elements we knew,

600
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,239
Speaker 1: we could smash them together to make heavier stuff. But

601
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: it's not easy that you can just like order these

602
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 1: ingredients on Amazon, which is probably gonna have its own

603
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: elements soon Amazonium. They're all just going to be bizosium,

604
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 1: bizosium one, zosium two. He owns everything anyway, No, he

605
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: retired to any He's just the puppet master behind the

606
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: scenes now. So I guess maybe my question is why

607
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: can't I just take, you know, like two plutonium atoms

608
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: and smash those together, you know, and then you get

609
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:02,520
Speaker 1: ninety four plus ninety four are then you get you know. Yeah.

610
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: So the second reason is hard is that if you

611
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 1: smash them together, you just get a bunch of little bits.

612
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 1: You've got to do this thing which is sort of gentle.

613
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: You gotta push them together hard enough for them to emerge,

614
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: but not so hard that you destroy the outcome. Right,

615
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: you shoot two plutonium nuclei together at the speeds we

616
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: have the large hadron collider, you're just going to get

617
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: a huge explosion. In fact, we do that at the

618
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: large hadron collider. We collide usually protons and protons, but

619
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: sometimes we collide gold nuclei, sometimes lead nuclei, but you

620
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: don't get a stable atom, which you get is too

621
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: destroyed heavy nuclei. Oh I see. I guess if you

622
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: take like one thing built out of legos and you

623
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: smash it against something else that lego, you don't just

624
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: get one bigger thing made out of legos. You just

625
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 1: get a big best on your floor. Probably. Yeah, But

626
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: you know, if you take one brownie and you smash

627
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: and get another brownie, you kind of do just get

628
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: a double sized brownie. So maybe brownie physics is the

629
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 1: way to go. Yeah, you're in the wrong. You're in

630
00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: the laboratory instead of the kitchen, Daniel, that's your problem. Yeah,

631
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: so you've got to bring these things together. So they

632
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: formed this stable state, but not with so much energy

633
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 1: that they destroy it. So this process is actually called

634
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 1: confusingly cold fusion. Nothing to do with the other notorious

635
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: cold fusion research that was done in the nineties that

636
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 1: try to produce energy from hydrogen fusion. This is a

637
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: totally separate process that's trying to emerge nuclei of heavy

638
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 1: atoms sort of kissed them together, so they turned into

639
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,560
Speaker 1: this heavier thing, and you're just quite delicate. It's like

640
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: a reboot or a rebrand. It's a totally separate line

641
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: of research that actually predates the crazy cold fusion. This

642
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: is like actual cold fusion. And you know it makes sense.

643
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,720
Speaker 1: It's fusion because they're merging together heavy nuclei to make

644
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: something new, and it's cold because they try not to

645
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: do it too hard. Right, Well, I guess that covers

646
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: why it's hard to make these super heavy elements. And

647
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 1: we sort of talked a little bit about what makes

648
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 1: these heavier elements possible and stable, but we still haven't

649
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: talked about why we can't make these super heavy elements,

650
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: or whether or not they're theoretically or practically possible. And

651
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: it all seems to have to do with this concept

652
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: of the island of stability. So let's get into what

653
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: this island is and whether or not it makes for

654
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:30,439
Speaker 1: a pleasant vacation. First, let's take another quick break, all right, Daniel,

655
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: let's talk about the island of stability. Now, this has

656
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,320
Speaker 1: to do with I'm guessing some sort of like special

657
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: configuration that the protons and neutrons have to be in

658
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: before they can make these magic numbers happen. Yeah, we

659
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: look at the pattern of the number of neutrons and

660
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: the number of protons that are in various atoms, and

661
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 1: you could ask the question, like, what happens if I

662
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:54,960
Speaker 1: put seventeen neutrons and nine protons together, or a hundred

663
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 1: and forty four neutrons and protons, what do you get?

664
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: And most of the you get something unstable, which just

665
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 1: breaks apart almost instantly. But this this diagonal line where

666
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: the protons are increasing and the neutrons are increasing, and

667
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:09,879
Speaker 1: you get a bunch of stable items, and those are

668
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,239
Speaker 1: the elements that we know, right, but it sort of

669
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 1: runs out at a certain point there's like the heaviest element,

670
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,880
Speaker 1: and above that things start to get really unstable, like

671
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: we were talking about. But nuclear theorists suggest or speculate

672
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: that deep beyond that, like far past the elements that

673
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,320
Speaker 1: we know, if you have the right number of protons

674
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,239
Speaker 1: and neutrons, there might be an island out there where

675
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:34,720
Speaker 1: if you put them together, they can actually be stable.

676
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: They could last for a very very long time. Oh,

677
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: I see, like there's a maybe a whole range of

678
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: special combinations of protons and neutrons that is stable, but

679
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 1: it's just not connected to sort of the range of

680
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 1: stable configurations that we know about. Yeah, exactly, we have

681
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: like a peninsula jutting out. You know, they have the

682
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: pensula stability and then a gap, and you know, there's

683
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 1: no configuration where you could assemble those protons and neutrons

684
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,840
Speaker 1: together to make something stay able. But then if you

685
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: keep going, you keep going, you find this island where

686
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 1: certain number of protons and certain number of neutrons, really

687
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: large crazy numbers could maybe actually hang out together and

688
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: be stable. Because I guess in general, it seems like

689
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: the number of protons and the number of neutrons needs

690
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: to be similar, right, Like you can't have an element

691
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 1: with one proton and a hundred neutrons, just like you

692
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 1: can't have an element with like a hundred protons and

693
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 1: one neutrons. It seems like nature likes for those two

694
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 1: numbers to be similar. Yeah, they do need to be similar,

695
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,880
Speaker 1: but they're not exactly equal, right, Like, for example, you

696
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 1: tend to have more neutrons than protons, Like the line

697
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: veers up off the diagonal. So for example, if you

698
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: have eighty two protons in lead, then you have like

699
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,239
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenties six neutrons in lead. So we

700
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 1: don't quite understand it, but it tends to prefer having

701
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 1: more neutrons than protons. But you're right, it's about the

702
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: same number. You can't go too far off the diet, right, right,

703
00:36:57,719 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 1: And the two numbers are a little bit different again

704
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 1: because of these magic numbers, like protons like to be

705
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 1: happy in certain numbers and neutrons like to be happy

706
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:09,279
Speaker 1: in other numbers, and so it's getting the right combination

707
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,719
Speaker 1: that gives you the stable element. Yeah, exactly. And lead,

708
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 1: for example, is one of these doublic magic ones that

709
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 1: has eighty two protons, which is a magic number, and

710
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:21,080
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenties six neutrons, which is a magic number.

711
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: I see, And that works for us for up to

712
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 1: a certain point. But you're imagining that, or physicists are

713
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,879
Speaker 1: imagining that maybe there's you know, a whole set of

714
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 1: combinations way out there, like you know, a thousand protons

715
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 1: and two thousand neutrons that maybe also stable, just like

716
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 1: let it, yeah exactly, not quite as far as two thousand.

717
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 1: Nobody's gone that far, but it might be true. Right,

718
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: It might be that these magic numbers just keep increasing,

719
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,839
Speaker 1: and we have not just one island out there at

720
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: like a hundred and twenty protons, but another one at

721
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,759
Speaker 1: a d eighty four protons, another one even further beyond that,

722
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,399
Speaker 1: And so we find this island of stability. It might

723
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: suggest that you could just keep going on making like

724
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 1: riduculously heavy elements. I see, well, I guess the question,

725
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: Danniel is, how do you know that they're the island

726
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: and we're not the island? Like, what if we're the

727
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: island and they're the continent. That sounds great. I'm happy

728
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: to be on an island. I love islands. Islands are wonderful.

729
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 1: But these other islands, we think they would be disconnected. Right,

730
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 1: as the magic numbers increase, they get further and further apart,

731
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:24,839
Speaker 1: and so you can't get as far away from sort

732
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: of this island of stability without falling into the ocean

733
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,759
Speaker 1: of decay. I guess you what we call it? All? Right, Well,

734
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:33,800
Speaker 1: all of this sounds a little bit theoretical. These magic

735
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: numbers combinations might exist, and it might give us stable atoms.

736
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:40,400
Speaker 1: So what have pizzicts been doing to sort of explore

737
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 1: this or confirm or deny this. Well, one thing they've

738
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: been doing is just trying to make these things. And

739
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: so they're trying to push the technology, like create heavier

740
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 1: and heavier elements and see if there's this trend towards

741
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: increasing stability. We don't have to actually get all the

742
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: way onto the island to have an idea that it

743
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: might be there. If as we make heavier and heavier elements,

744
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 1: we see the stability to go up and up and up,

745
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:04,959
Speaker 1: and that suggests that we're like on the right path.

746
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 1: We're like coming up the shore towards the island of stability.

747
00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 1: I see, we're like testing the waters kind of, yeah, exactly.

748
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:14,640
Speaker 1: And so for example, in the nineties, people were working

749
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: on making this atom fleruvium, which is number one hundred

750
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 1: and fourteen, and they worked on it for a long

751
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 1: time and they saw one, like they made a single

752
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,799
Speaker 1: one of these atoms. What they could tell like, hey,

753
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 1: we made one atom of this. It's hard to do, right,

754
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:34,719
Speaker 1: So they were smashing plutonium onto calcium and they were

755
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:38,720
Speaker 1: looking for individual ones. They are sensitive to individual atoms,

756
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool, and they made this one and

757
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 1: it stuck around for like thirty seconds, which is crazy

758
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,799
Speaker 1: long for a heavy element. Right, it's not as long

759
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 1: as we think the island of stability as we think

760
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: those elements might have lifetimes and thousands, millions or billions

761
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,720
Speaker 1: of years, but it's much longer than the lighter elements

762
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,799
Speaker 1: just before. So it's sort of like this trend we

763
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: were looking for. I see. So they try to make

764
00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 1: this element and it lasted for thirty seconds once once,

765
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: and then they were never able to make it again. Right,

766
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,320
Speaker 1: people have been trying to make this again and again,

767
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: but they just haven't been able to and so we

768
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:16,720
Speaker 1: don't know if that was wrong or if they got lucky.

769
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,839
Speaker 1: And it's just really really hard. Sometimes these experiments can

770
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:21,840
Speaker 1: go for years without making one and then get like

771
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,359
Speaker 1: two atoms made in a single week. It's just sort

772
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: of up to luck. Wow, that's crazy. What must it

773
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 1: feel like to have made this. It's like finding one

774
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 1: unicorn and then it goes away, and then you're trying

775
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: to tell everyone that unicorns exists exactly. And if I

776
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,880
Speaker 1: made a unicorn in the large Hadron collider, I'd be

777
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 1: pretty excited, but yeah, I'd hope it was reproducible. That's

778
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 1: for thirty seconds and then nobody else saw it, Daniel,

779
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: then I would doubt my sanity and I would book

780
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 1: a trip to the island of stability to restore myself.

781
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: There you go. I guess you should have taken a

782
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,879
Speaker 1: selfie with it, or it didn't happen. All right. Well,

783
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:56,880
Speaker 1: let's say we do start to make these super duper

784
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: heavy elements. I guess what would they be good for

785
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,799
Speaker 1: is making better paperweights? Well, they'd be fascinating sort of theoretically,

786
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: because they would tell us that we do understand something

787
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 1: about how the nucleus comes together, and they would help

788
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:11,319
Speaker 1: us predict like where the next island of stability is.

789
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: That it's always just sort of good to learn, like

790
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,240
Speaker 1: at a basic level, how does the universe fit together?

791
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: How can you fit these things together and can build

792
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:20,839
Speaker 1: something that hangs together? That sort of from the abstract,

793
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: I just want to know area. But there are also

794
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:27,359
Speaker 1: potential practical uses. Remember that a lot of our spacecraft

795
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,279
Speaker 1: that we send out there to explore the universe run

796
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 1: on nuclear fuel. For example, the Mars Rover that just landed,

797
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 1: or Voyager and Pioneer. They're deep out into space, they

798
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: have nuclear batteries on them, and super heavy elements which

799
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 1: are not completely stable but last for a long time

800
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,959
Speaker 1: might be excellent sources of power for spacecraft. Oh, I see,

801
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 1: Like you would make a super heavy element and then

802
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 1: use the decay to like power your spaceship for a

803
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,320
Speaker 1: thousand years exactly. And you want your fuel to last

804
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,239
Speaker 1: the whole length of your trip. And so if you

805
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,400
Speaker 1: want to go really really far, then you need which

806
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 1: is not totally stable. It takes a long time to decay,

807
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,760
Speaker 1: and so if you want to fly for a million years,

808
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:08,479
Speaker 1: then you need to find something with a half life

809
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: of about a million years. I see, because if you

810
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: even plutonium won't last you forever. Well, eventually all decays exactly,

811
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,560
Speaker 1: And the heavier elements are also denser, right, so you

812
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 1: can carry them around in sort of smaller spaces, and

813
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 1: you know, space is always a premium on these spacecraft. Interesting,

814
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 1: and I guess it would also just teach us just

815
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 1: about matter and what's possible and what corner of the

816
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 1: universe do we exist in, Like do we exist in

817
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 1: the the most common one? Or are we sort of

818
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,759
Speaker 1: a flute? Yeah, And there are crazy ideas for what

819
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: these super heavy elements might look like. People have the

820
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 1: idea that, for example, the nucleus of one of these

821
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:46,960
Speaker 1: super heavy elements like dred and eighty four protons and

822
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: it might not even be spherical, you know, the way

823
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 1: you think about like electrons having shells, and some of

824
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:54,440
Speaker 1: those things have like weird blobs in shapes to them.

825
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: Some people speculate that the nucleus of a super heavy

826
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 1: element might be sort of like a finguer eight, or

827
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 1: it might be sort of like a bubble, like be

828
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 1: hollow and have like no neutrons and protons inside, could

829
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 1: be sort of like an actual physical shell. Interesting, but

830
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 1: you would only see that if you drill down to

831
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 1: the nucleus of this atom, right, yeah, exactly. You have

832
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: to make a bunch of them and then somehow probe

833
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 1: them by shooting particles at them. So you'd make your unicorn,

834
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:22,719
Speaker 1: and then you kill your unicorn in doing experiments on it.

835
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 1: What if the nucleus looks like a unicorn? That's theoretically possible,

836
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:30,399
Speaker 1: isn't it. It's theoretically possible. There must be some magic

837
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 1: number for that. It would make it very hard to

838
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 1: shoot particles at it because it would be so cute.

839
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 1: People like, oh, let's not study this thing, let's just

840
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: let it go. Be a tragedy to see a decayed

841
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: And then there are also folks who are just looking

842
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:44,359
Speaker 1: for this stuff. They think, let's not build this, let's

843
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 1: see if it exists in nature. As you were saying,

844
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: sometimes crazy stuff happens at the core of neutron stars.

845
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: How do we know that these crazy heavy elements haven't

846
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 1: already been made and just like lying in the ground

847
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: waiting for us to find them. Interesting, So there's a

848
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 1: pretty amazing possibilities out there. There are really crazy possibilities

849
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:04,880
Speaker 1: out there. And there's even a guy from Hebrew University

850
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:07,360
Speaker 1: who claimed in two thousand and eight to have discovered

851
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 1: some of these things. He didn't see them directly, but

852
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,160
Speaker 1: he saw a bunch of crystals with like weird radiation

853
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: damage that he claimed could only have been made by

854
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 1: the decay of a super duper heavy element. But then again,

855
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: of course other people look for the same sort of

856
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: patterns and didn't spot them, so it's not really reproduced interesting,

857
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 1: I guess. Then the hunt goes on for the heaviest

858
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 1: element possible in the universe, both theoretically and experimentally. Yes, exactly,

859
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,160
Speaker 1: it's just another way we can continue to explore the

860
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:38,000
Speaker 1: nature of the universe that we find around us. We

861
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 1: can put these building blocks together and try to create

862
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 1: new stuff, become like masters of the universe and make

863
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,320
Speaker 1: new weird elements that we could then use and build

864
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:50,000
Speaker 1: stuff out of it, and also just gain insight into

865
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:53,279
Speaker 1: how matter works. Cool. Well, I've always been curious about

866
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 1: how heavy I can get, and um, I'll let you

867
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,240
Speaker 1: know how that goes. Just keep shooting brownies at yourself

868
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 1: and eventually happen. Just keep colliding brownies with my mouth.

869
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 1: It's an experiment. It's an experiment. I promise it's for science. Yeah,

870
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,480
Speaker 1: all that teems like a foregone conclusion about what's gonna happen. Well,

871
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: eventually you might just decay. Well, eventually we all decayed, Daniel.

872
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 1: The question is how many brownies will you have eaten

873
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,840
Speaker 1: before that happens to you? I think it's an ancient

874
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: question in philosophy. All right, Well, keep thinking about the

875
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:29,879
Speaker 1: universe and keep thinking about what kinds of matter could

876
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 1: exist out there. There could be who knows, magic number

877
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,880
Speaker 1: figure eight elements out there that maybe look like unicorns.

878
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 1: That's right, and we will continue to explore the universe

879
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: and try to understand this stuff. Not just taking stuff

880
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: apart and figuring out what it's made out of at

881
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:47,799
Speaker 1: the smallest scale, but putting it back together and trying

882
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: to make new crazy stuff for us to experience, to

883
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: fly us around the universe, and to make delicious new

884
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: kinds of desserts. For warning, I would appreciate that. Thank

885
00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: you in my island of stability. Who says particle physics

886
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,160
Speaker 1: has no applications? All right, Well, we hope you enjoyed Dad,

887
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening,

888
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is

889
00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio or more podcast. For

890
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

891
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.